tramontana

Click on the first image to see full screen in a gallery format – enjoy!

The Royal Palace in Madrid – I toured it and was not really impressed. I’ve seen far nicer palaces in other countries. I fear that the royal family here in Spain is on its way out. The country can hardly afford it and it’s not really a hot tourist draw (like in Britain). They do have a changing of the guard ceremony here if you look online. Rather cool to see the uniforms, the pretty horses and all that pageantry – something we don’t see in America! The grounds are nice, though. Tour it if you must, but I’d say save your money.

At the top northeastern corner of Spain, within sight of France lies the Cap de Creus lighthouse. It’s a remote spit of land, tortured by the fierce Tramontana winds. I did this watercolor of the lighthouse there for my sweet Catalan buddy Beth who loves lighthouses and took me there to see it once.

An often overlooked park near the Prado, the Royal Botanic gardens are a lovely quiet respite in a big city. This little nook was the Peace Garden and had a poem that said: “Fomenta la paz en el mundo, usando el idioma universal del jardin.” – which sort of means The formation of peace in the world utilizes the universal language of gardening.

Bullfighting may be controversial, but it’s still a part of many Spanish town’s traditions including Andalucia and central Spain. It;s not legal in most of Spain anymore (thankfully) but this grisly tradition still is practiced mostly in the south.

Half an hour south of Barcelona on the Mediterranean sea lies the cute town of Sitges, one of my favorite getaways. The train ride itself is totally magical.

The hillside town of La Cazorla in the southern province of Andalucia.

The Rose of the Winds – showing the directions and names of each corresponding wind in the European region. Yikes, the winds are so strong they even have names!